Our HP Laserjet 4L will only print many pages of one-line gibberish when we try to print to it.

It works fine when connected via parallel-USB cable to our old computer USING XP Professional 32-bit OS, but when we install it to our new computer with Vista Home Premium, 64-bit (same cable) it only prints gibberish. It will self-print a test page with no problems.

I don't know if this is connected or not, but when installing the printer we have occasionally had trouble getting the computer to recognize the device -- we get an "unknown device" error. Usually if we wiggle the cord or unplug it and replug it, it works and installs the driver. We then manually install the printer using the "virtual USB port". I also noticed today that sometimes the printer would show "ready", then it would show "offline", during which times the driver would not show up in device manager. Again, wiggling the cord or unplugging and replugging changed it back to "ready".

All of our other USB devices WORK fine on this computer, and I have TRIED plugging one of them into the port we have been working with and they still work -- it's not the port, the printer, or the cable. Vista comes with the drivers installed, and HP has not made them available anywhere else.

Does anyone have any suggestions? Thank you very much!Is the printer Vista compatible? Driver installed?Yes and yes.

HP's website says: "5 - Yes. Your product is supported. Drivers for HP printers are included with the Microsoft Windows Vista Operating System. HP has a Windows Vista driver solution available for your product. This driver will enable your product's basic functions to work. HP is committed to providing the best experience for HP products in the Windows Vista operating environment. You can conveniently find this driver in your Windows Vista operating system, today. At this time the driver will only be available on the Windows Vista operating system through the “ADD a Printer" wizard. HP does not plan on placing this legacy driver on www.hp.com.
NOTE: If your printer currently uses either a PCL5, PCL6 or PostScript XP driver you may download the current XP driver from HP to provide printing FUNCTIONALITY. Windows Vista printing is very similar to Windows XP and most print drivers supported in the XP environment for LaserJet printers may also work in the Windows Vista operating system."

I tried downloading the current XP driver, but they only have the 32-bit driver available for download -- the 64-bit driver comes with the 64-bit version of XP, which I don't have. Vista will not allow me to install and use the XP 32-bit driver -- when I click on the file it says there is no compatible driver found.

I considered downloading the driver from somewhere else and install it, but HP has not put it out anywhere else so that doesn't seem to be an option.

In searching for an answer to this I have seen many people who had difficulties with Vista and the 4L and finally got them working, so the printer must be compatible. So far, their problems have been slightly different than mine, and their solutions have not changed my one-line of gibberish, junk, or apparently random characters.Did you install from CD?No, the driver came pre-installed with Vista. There is no CD from which to install. Our Vista re-installation CD says right on it, "Not for reinstallation of drivers".I recommend contacting HP customer support. They should be able to send you the driver for it, if they want you to buy your next printer from them anyway.is it 4L Pro or 4L their are 2 types, try downloading and installing the driver for it.

According to type it will be either http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/SoftwareIndex.jsp?lang=en&cc=us&prodNameId=15034&prodTypeId=18972&prodSeriesId=25486&swLang=8&taskId=135&swEnvOID=2093

or

the 4L Pro is

http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/SoftwareIndex.jsp?lang=en&cc=us&prodNameId=15040&prodTypeId=18972&prodSeriesId=25486&swLang=8&taskId=135&swEnvOID=2093This is the information from both of the links that you provided Ireland.

Quote

At this time the driver will only be available on the Windows Vista operating system through the “Add a Printer�? wizard. HP does not plan on placing this legacy driver on www.hp.com.